Lecture 'Geophysical methods in environmental monitoring: understanding permafrost dynamics'
- For whom
- Alumni , Employees , Students
- When
- 14-10-2026 from 10:00 to 12:30
- Where
- Room 0.1, building S8, Campus Sterre, Kriijgslaan 297, 9000 Ghent
- Language
- English
- Organizer
- Department of Geology - Faculty of Sciences
- Contact
- thomas.hermans@ugent.be
- Website
- https://hydrogeo.ugent.be
The talk describes how geophysical methods track ground ice loss, groundwater pathways and slope instability in alpine permafrost.
Alpine permafrost acts as a long-term groundwater reservoir, but climate warming is accelerating ground-ice loss and altering subsurface hydrology. Thawing permafrost creates new groundwater pathways, increases porosity and saturation changes, and can destabilize rock slopes, contributing to rockfalls and landslides.
This presentation will demonstrate how geophysical methods can be used to investigate the distribution and dynamics of ground ice and liquid water in alpine permafrost environments, providing insights into ongoing degradation processes and their hydrogeological implications.
Adrián Flores Orozco is Professor and Head of the Research Unit of Geophysics at TU Wien. With more than 20 years of experience in environmental geophysics, he has led several Austrian research projects on electrical and electromagnetic monitoring of permafrost degradation. He has authored numerous publications in leading international journals and serves as Editor of The Cryosphere.